Normal -Not Really in our Wheelhouse
by ArchaeaAvenger15
Summary: One day a jock, a nerd, a loner, a freak and a Brit all ended up with Saturday detention and found they had more in common then they had previously thought. High School AU (very) loosely based on the Breakfast Club but will go much father than one Saturday.
1. Saturday Detention

A/N: High school based loosely on the Breakfast Club but will go much father then one Saturday detention. Some Bering and Wells but that is not the point of this story.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Myka Bering never got into trouble. She never got into fights and she certainly never got detention. Of course that was before she became lab partners with Pete Lattimer.

She had known of him by reputation for years now and when she had been assigned to him for the science fair she had groaned audibly, the last thing she needed was an overgrown child masquerading as a jock to ruin her GPA.

They had been in the library for no more than ten minutes before Pete had grabbed her book from her and held it above his head. He had meant for her to try to jump for it but Myka was not in the mood for his games and instead had grabbed his other arm, wrenched it behind his back and pushed him into bookshelf. On one hand it worked, he did drop her textbook, on the other hand…..

"Miss Bering, Mr. Lattimer," Myka turned around to see Professor Nielsen glaring at them, "What exactly is going on here?"

"Myka attacked me out of nowhere!" Pete exclaimed but the Professor just raised one of his infamous eyebrows at Pete.

"This school has a strict policy when it comes to fighting," he continued ignoring Pete, "You both will report to detention this Saturday." Myka visually palled at the thought of having to explain it to her parents.

"Ah, sorry man but I can't make it, got wrestling practice all day," Pete explained in a tone Myka wouldn't have dreamed of using with a teacher.

"Oh wrestling practice," Professor Nielsen said in mock understanding, "In that cause you don't have to go."

"Really?"

"NO!" Professor Nielsen barked turning to leave, "And pick up your mess!"

And that was how Myka had gotten here, sitting in a dusty basement filled with boxes on a Saturday morning across from Pete wondering what sound her book would make if she hit it across his incredibly empty skull.

To take her mind off of him, Myka focused on the other people in the room. Sitting across from Myka was a tiny redheaded girl by the name of Claudia Donovan. Myka knew two things about the girl. First: she was considerably younger than everyone else in the junior year and second: she was failing calculus.

What Myka didn't know was why the girl was failing calculus. Myka sat behind her in class and the last time Professor Nelson had handed back the tests she had caught a glimpse of Claudia's. Every inch of the paper was covered in derivatives, series and sequences and what looked to Myka to be physics. The only spot that wasn't covered in symbols and numbers was the large red F on the top of the page and the words, "Would it kill you to try?"

Truthfully it made Myka mad, smart girls that pretended to be stupid was one of her biggest pet peeves.

Next to Claudia sat a lanky blond boy supporting a swollen lip by the name of Steve Jinx. A few years ago Steve had been the new kid, which in Univille had made him famous. Then last year his sister had been shot and killed in Featherhead which had made him infamous.

Myka had never spoken to him, come to think of it, Myka wasn't even sure she had even heard him speak. Although judging by his face that didn't stop him from getting into fights.

The last person in the room was Helena Wells, the British foreign exchange student who was being hosted by Professor MacPherson, who Myka was embarrassed to admit she knew quite a bit about. She couldn't help it; there was just something about the girl that drew Myka's attention to her.

"I'm glad to see you all made it," A voice said from the door and all five of them turned to look. Mrs. Fredrick stood in the doorway examining them over her glasses, "As I'm sure you are all aware, fighting is not tolerated in my school. Yet for some reason you five have decided to ignore that."

"To be fair," Helena started raising her hand, "I wasn't actually fighting."

"Miss Wells, you and I both know that you were simply goading that boy into taking the first swing," Mrs. Fredrick answered turning her intense stare on Helena, "If Professor MacPherson had not stepped in that boy would have been in Dr. Vanessa office for the rest of the week."

Myka couldn't help to notice how proud Helena looked at this.

"Every Saturday," Mrs. Fredrick continued when no one else protested, "You will report here in the basement and sort through these boxes. I want a detailed inventory of each item here."

"Aw man," Pete said looking around at all the boxes, "How long do we have to do this for?"

"Until you are able to work through whatever is causing this erratic behavior," Mrs Fredrick said simply.

"I don't have anything to work through," Pete protested pouting turning to look at everyone "I don't." He turned back to Mrs. F but she was gone.

"I don't have anything to work through," Pete mumbled again.

"Lie," Steve said softly and Pete looked at him confused, "What was that man?"

"Nothing," Steve said getting up, "Let's just get to work." Myka and HG both got up but Claudia simply reached into her bag, pulling out an ancient laptop with wires sticking out from every place imaginable.

"Oh what's that?" Pete asked coming over to Claudia.

"It's my computer," she replied simply and when Pete reached out his hand she slapped it away, "Don't even think about it, Jockboy." Maka smiled slightly, enjoying seeing her bane shot down like that, but that didn't mean she was going to let this girl play games on her computer while the rest of them did inventory.

"Come on, Claudia," Myka said going and getting down a box, "How about we just get to work?"

"I am working," Claudia replied typing away at her keyboard. Helena put down the box she had picked up and came over. "What exactly are you doing here?"

"Being Awesome," Claudia replied smirking and stopped typing, "Done. Everybody show me your phones." There was a moment's pause as everyone exchanged glances before Pete pulled out his phone for her too see.

Claudia examined his phone and then the others one by one as they consented and showed her their phones. In the end she took Steve's and started tinkering with it.

"Um..please don't break my phone," Steve said softly frowning down at her.

"Chill out, Debbie Downer, I know what I'm doing."

"Why can't you use your phone?" Steve asked hovering over her ready to steal back his phone at any second.

"Don't got one," Claudia said simply and handed it back to him, "There, now all you have to do is take a picture of an item. It will automatically send it to my computer. The program I set up will cross-reference the picture against the Internet and automatically download all the pertinent information to my computer."

"Sweet!" Pete said trying to grab Steve's phone from him but failing, "So all we have to do is take a quick pic of everything and we'll be done."

"Pretty much," Claudia said nodding and heading back to her computer.

"It's quite impressive," Helena said coming over and looking over the girls shoulder.

"Yeah and yet you can't even muster up enough effort to answer test question correctly," Myka mumbled and continued to unpack her box, for some reason she felt put out by this.

"What was that?" Claudia asked raising her eyebrows at Myka.

"Look it was nothing," Myka replied shaking her head and frowning a bit at the large top hat she just pulled out of the box.

"Really cause it sounded like an unapologetic jab at my character," Claudia said crossing her arms and glaring at Myka.

"Ooo," Pete said putting his arm around Steve who looked back at him as if he was crazy, "Mykes in trouble."

"Fine," Myka said and throwing her hands up, "Fine, okay, I just think it's insulting to everyone who works really hard to do well in class for you just to blow it off. You are obviously some sort of teenage genius it's a waste for you not to even try."

"A waste?" Claudia asked snorting a bit, "A waste of what? Foster kids don't go to college, we just keep our heads down and wait to be sent away again."

There was an awkward pause for a second before Myka said, "Says who? Just because you're a foster kid doesn't mean you can't do whatever the hell you want to. There are scholarships and other funds; if you really want to go to college you can find a way. You are way too smart just to give up."

"Um…thank you?" Claudia said looking slightly shocked by her speech. Myka nodded a bit and Helena smiled taking the phone from Steve. "Righty ho then. Let's get started."

"She took my phone," Steve mumbled to himself but went to go get a box to unpack.


	2. Endless junk in weird boxes

A/N: In response to Nevermindthebuttocks: I see it more as Pete as Andrew, Myka as Brian, Claudia as Allison, Steve as Claire and HG as Bender but I see your connections as well.

Chapter 2

"Are we done yet?" Pete moaned form the pile of boxes he had turned into a bed.

"We've only been here for an hour," Helena pointed out digging through a box that was filled with rubber snakes, "why are these even here?"

"And it's not like you are doing any work," Steve pointed out pulling at what seemed to be an endless string.

"I can't concentrate when I'm hungry," Pete complained and got up going to the door, "I wonder if there is food in the cafeteria on the weekend."

"You're leaving?" Myka asked in disbelief.

"Apparently not," Pete said trying to turn the handle and finding it locked, "Hey, Claude do you think you can pick it?"

"I'm a tech geek not jewel thief," Claudia replied putting on a hat with a stuffed vulture on it.

"I could give it a go," Helena said smiling. She put down the rubber snake and came over to Myka. Myka froze as Helena reached up and pulled out a bobby pen from Myka's hair, "Do you mind if I borrow this?"

Myka shook her head feeling a strange warmth spread through her stomach as she watched Helena take the bobby pin to the door and bend down to try to pick the lock.

"It's no good," Helena said after a few minutes of trying, "It seems we are stuck here."

"Aww," Pete groaned and heading back to his box bed, "I'm missing practice and lunch and it's not even my fault I'm stuck here."

"Not your fault?!" Myka said in disbelief.

"Um, yeah," Pete said stretching "You attacked me out of nowhere!"

"Please!" Myka replied indignantly crossing her arms, "You were completely goading me to do it. All I wanted to do was complete my science fair project and get on with my life."

"Yeah, well, so did I!" Pete said softly pouting a bit.

"Wait. What?" Myka asked confusion replacing her anger.

"I just wanted to help," Pete said shrugging a bit, "You were all intent on your book and wouldn't talk to me and all I wanted was to help plan the assignment."

"Really?" Myka said in complete disbelief.

"Yeah, did you really think I was just going sit back and let you do all the work?" Pete asked indignantly.

"You are a jock," Claudia pointed out dryly from where she sat watching the fight with Steve and Helena.

"And that does seem to be something they enjoy," Steve added unhelpfully.

Pete crossed his arms with a look of smug triumph, "Well I guess I'm more than just your average jock. I've got things, I'm deep man!"

"Yes, you seem like quite the tortured soul," Helena agreed sarcastically raising an eyebrow at him.

"Um yeah. Dead father, absent mother and deaf sister. Boom! Trifecta!" Pete ticked off counting on his fingers and sounding a bit too proud of these facts, "Beat that!"

"I assure you, you do not want to play this game with me," Helena warned him shaking her head.

"Look, I don't care how gross it is, being forced to drink tea instead of coffee doesn't trump my stuff."

"My daughter was killed during a robbery while I was away at school," Helena stated as simply as she could but Myka saw the pain that flashed in her eyes.

Silence followed this declaration until Claudia had the nerve to ask, "You had a kid?"

Helena nodded playing with the locket she was wearing, "Her name was Christina. I was sixteen, needless to say it wasn't part of my plan, but my cousin agreed to take her in until I finished school. That was of course until..." She feel silent for a moment staring off into space before she cleared her throat and shrugged the shadow off of her, "Anyway after that I decided I needed a change of scenery."

"That's how you ended up here," Myka said softly and Helena nodded, "MacPherson was in London at the time, teaching a semester at my academy and he offered to host me." There was another awkward pause before Pete broke it.

"Okay, Mykes, you're turn."

"It's Myka, not Mykes, and it's my turn to what?"

Pete shrugged and took a seat on one of the boxes, "We all shared our dark and twisties, well accept Steve but we all already know about his stuff…"

"Hey," Steve interjected frowning, "I resent that."

"Sorry man but we all know about your sister so it's Myka's turn to share."

"I don't have issues," Myka interjected and when the others looked at her doubiously she continued, "I mean what do you want me to say? That I have problems with authority figures because of my relationship with my father. That I have to be perfect so that I don't disappoint him anymore the I already do? That I would like to be like my sister and not actually care what anyone said or thought but I can't because no matter what I do all I see is that look he gives me that says unless I can find a way to turn myself into a boy he will never truly be proud of me? Is that what you want me to say?"

"Yeah that is pretty good," Pete said and it was clear that they were all a bit shocked by her outburst.

"Dude you have serious issues," Claudia added raising an eyebrow at her. Myka was trying to think of what to say to make them stop looking at her when a soft click made them turn and look at the door. Pete got up and tried the handle and this time it opened with ease.

"Well boys and girls, looks like that is all for today," he waved to them smiling before heading out of the door.


	3. Science is more fun with fire

Chapter 3

Myka was dreading going to school on Monday but she could quite figure out why. After all nothing had really changed since Saturday. So what if they all knew she had issues with her father? So what if they spread it around to the whole school? It's not like anyone would actually care. Yet despite all of this logic, the knot in her stomach did not go away.

Throughout the first few periods she looked up whenever someone walked by her and jumped when someone spoke. This made eating in the cafeteria particularly annoying. Normally Myka was more then happy eating while reading her book in her small corner ignoring the rest of the student body. Today she was annoyingly aware of how loud her classmates were and when the chair across from her was pulled out she physically jumped.

"Sorry, darling I didn't mean to scare you." Myka looked up to see Helena sitting down in front of her and gave her a small smile.

"No, it's fine. It's just that no one usually sits there," Myka said trying not to sound frazzled, not that she was frazzled. After all there was no reason for her to be frazzled by Helena, right?

"Well I couldn't help but notice your reading corner here and I thought perhaps I would join you," Helena said and pulled out a complete collection of the works of Jules Verne. Myka smiled at the book, "Have you read him before?"

"Many times," Helena said smiling back, "But I have recently decided pursue some of his lesser known works. I can not stand people who claim to be a fan of an author but who have only read the most notable of their writings."

Myka tried to hid her amusement at this statement but she couldn't quite manage it, "I couldn't agree more." Myka watched Helena read for a second feeling the tension she'd been holding on to drift away so that this time when the chair near her was pulled out and Pete dropped into it she didn't even flinch.

"Ooo, Jules Verne, " Pete said reading the cover of Helena's book and causing her to look up at him, "Who's she?"

"Jules Verne is a man," Helena said distainfully.

"Well someone forgot to tell his parents," Pete replied echoing Helena's tone.

"He is a great author," Myka said stepping in before things escalated between the two, "He wrote Journey to the Center of the Earth."

"The movie with Brendan Fraser," Pete said clapping his hand as he made the connection, "Not his best work."

"I have no idea what he is talking about," Helena declared shaking her head and going back to her book.

"Don't you have people you usually sit with," Myka asked changing the subject. Pete just shrugged, "They were boring me, plus I've been thinking about our science project. What if we started by building a giant volcano…"

"No," Myka cut in tersely.

"Come on Mykes! You haven't even heard the best part yet!"

"If it involves a volcano I don't want to," Myka assured him simple and Helena just smirked, "Your big idea involved the most cliché, for lack of a better word, experiment that has ever been preformed."

"Okay, Queen Elizabeth, what big idea did you and your partner come up with?" Pete challenged.

"Seniors don't have partners," Helena said simply placing her bookmark back in her book, "I am exploring the idea of the global consciousness and the theory that if you could tap into it you would be able to experience the life a someone who lived hundreds of years ago."

"You're building a time machine?" Pete asked smirking a bit.

"Of course not," Myka said chucking a bit embarrassed for Helena and feeling the inexplicable need to defend her, "Building a time machine is impossible."

"Exactly," Helena said nodding a bit, "Which is why I am simply going to explore the theory showing all my formulas and calculation in the paper and then build a miniature model of what such a machine would look like."

"Sounds like we have competition," Claudia said as she walked over trailed by Steve. Myka smiled at them and nodded to two empty chairs at the table, which was getting unusually crowded, "You and Steve are partners?"

"Yep," Claudia said plopping down in the chair and immediately reached over to steal one of Pete's fries who swatted at her playfully but let her have it, "I claimed Steve after this Saturday and convinced the teacher to switch us. We make a good team. I'm going to make the project and Steve is going to do all the writing."

"I did not agree to that," Steve said simply, frowning slightly.

"As group leader I decided for us," Claudia replied.

"I did not agree to that either."

"We voted on it at our first group meeting. You missed it."

"Of course I did." Steve said shaking his head at her. Claudia stole one more fry before standing up again.

"Cheer up Poopy Pants," Claudia replied cheerfully waiting for him to follow her lead, "Our project will be awesome. To my labouratory!" With that declaration she was off leaving Steve to follow after her.

"Poor Poopy Pants," Pete said with fake sympathy, "That chick is a firecracker. Ooo! Mykes can we make things explode!"

Steve Jinx was finding that he had a bad habit of letting assertive girls get him into trouble.

It wasn't that he was passive necessarily and he defiantly wasn't a push over, he stood up for himself when he needed too, that is how he had landed himself in detention after all, but he tended not to make waves if he could help it.

Maybe it was because he was a little brother or maybe it was just because his older sister had been so vivacious that there wasn't really room for him to be anything but easy-going. Not that he minded, he was more then happy to stay out of the public eye and his sister had always made sure to include him whenever her life got really exciting.

That was of course until the night she had died.

She wasn't supposed to be there. Olivia wasn't the type to sneak out in the middle of the night, steal their mother's car and go to a club, but that is exactly what she had done, because Olivia was the type of the person who would not abandon her friends when they need her.

So in the middle of the night when she had gotten the call from her drunk friend in Featherhead she had taken off without another thought to go rescue her. Steve had wanted to tell her not to go, it wasn't a safe neighborhood and the both knew it, she should never have gone there alone at that time of night. But little brothers didn't say to there older sisters, 'You shouldn't be doing this, it isn't right….'

"You shouldn't be doing this, it isn't right," Steve whispered staring out the crack on the door to make sure no one was coming. Claudia's "Labouritory" as she had pronounced it turned out to be an old supply room with broken down electronics.

"Chill poopy pants," Claudia said gutting an old computer monitor, "It's just wires and circuits, I'm not going to electrocute myself or anything."

"I'm way less worried about you getting shocked and more worried about the fact that this is technically vandalism and theft of school property."

"It's not like anyone is using these things and I need them for our project," Claudia pointed out, holding up a wire as if it should be obvious to Steve that they couldn't live with it.

"I don't think the school is going to see it that way," Steve pointed out, "Why don't we just buy these things?"

"Oh sure Pepper, let me just get out my out my unlimited platinum card and drive to the store in my red BMW convertible and then we can work on it in my private lab in my cliff side mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean with the help of my personal robot assistant JARVIS."

Steve snorted a bit and shook his head, "I can pay, this is my project too and I need to contribute something."

"Fine Poopy pants," Claudia said slipping her salvage into her bag, "Let's go. Class will be starting soon anyway. The last thing I need is to be late to Professor Nielsen's class. That guy has got it out of me."

In the end Myka and Pete decided to see how different chemicals reacted when burned. It was a pretty simple experiment as far as Myka was concerned but the idea really made Pete happy and she had to admit that his excitement was contagious. Plus between Helena and Claudia it wasn't like Myka really had a chance to win and as long as she wrote up a nice enough report she could still secure her A.

"Boric acid burns green," Pete declared hitting the lab bench, "Don't even need to burn that one, I learned it on Bill Nye The Science Guy." He sung the last part and Myka smiled.

"You still have to burn it, we have to weigh the remaining compound so we can calculate the percent yield."

"Yawn," Pete declared as he stared at the bright green flaming, "Science would be a lot more interesting without all this math and formulas."

"Is there any subject you do like?" Myka said as she scribbled out the chemical formula for the combustion of boric acid, "You know besides P.E."

Pete paused in his answer and thought for a second, "I've always enjoyed astronomy."

"You know that is science right?" Myka asked smiling at the irony.

Pete nodded softly, "My dad got me into it. When I was a kid we used to go camping a lot, he taught me all of the constellations. Also you could see some really cool astronomical phenomena out in the desert."

"Astronomical phenomena, huh?" Myka replied raising an eyebrow at him, it was not a phrase she would have expected him to use.

"Surprising I know," Pete said looking at her smirking, "I'm smarter then people give me credit for."

Myka didn't say anything to that even though quite a few snarky responses came to her mind. Instead she asked, "What happened to your father?"

Pete, who had moved on to calcium chloride, didn't look up at her, he seemed to be entranced by the bright red flames, "He was a fire fighter, one day he went off to work and he didn't come back." Myka didn't know what to say. 'I'm sorry' seemed very passé and she knew for a fact it wasn't really comforting to hear.

"I knew it was going to happen too," Pete finally looked up at Myka as the flame faded, "I can't quite explain it but I had this feeling, a vibe, that something horrible was going to happen to him if he went to work. I didn't say anything though."

Pete left it there but it was plan to Myka that he blamed his silence on what happened to his father. "Would he have listened if you had told him?"

Pete shrugged, "He would have heard me out, but he would have gone to work anyway. He wouldn't have sat back and let his partners risk their lives without him."

"Then it isn't you fault," Myka said with as much confidence as she could muster, she knew this speech by heart, she had told it to herself many times over the past year, "When a person you love dies you want to blame yourself but the truth is that person makes their own decision and they are responsible for their own actions. You're not responsible even though you kept silent. Even though you'd showed up late."

The were silent for a second, Pete watching her carefully, before he nodded, "So which one are we burning next?"

"We've got a good haul, Jinxy," Claudia said as she examined the parts she had 'liberated' from the supply closet. They were sitting in a diner discussing what their science project was going to be, or at least that was there excuse. Lately Steve had found every reason possible to avoid his mother as growing tension between them became unbearable and the best way to do that was to avoid the house. It seemed that Claudia was doing the same thing.

"So what are we going to make?" Steve asked as if he was actually going to get to do anything.

"No idea," Claudia said only slightly paying attention to him, her mind was quickly going through all the possibilities these parts offered.

"No idea?" Steve asked confused, "Then why were we stealing this junk if we don't even know what we are going to make."

"Careful!" Claudia putting her hands over her wires protectively, "They have feelings!"

"Sorry."

"You're forgiven," Claudia said clearly pacified, "This is just how I work, get the supplies and see what they want to become. You know I bet I could make a Taser with all this."

"No tasers," Steve replied shaking his head, "Science fair or not, the school is not going to be happy with you bringing in a weapon."

"Fine poopy pants, we will do something boring."

"You know I prefer Jinxy," Steve said softly and Claudia smiled up at him gathering up her materials.

"Well then Jinxy, lets get going to the hardware store before it closes so that I can find materials to make us something that won't get us kicked out of school."


	4. The cookies are a lie

A/N: I just wanted to take a second to thank everyone for reading and reviewing. I really started off just writing this story for myself, so it means a lot that other people seem to appreciate it as well. I also thought I should inform you all of some facts related to this story. First off, I go back to school in September so if I suddenly disappear, that is why. I will do my best though to make sure there is some feeling of closure if I have to stop. Which leads us to the second thing which is that this story doesn't really have a plot, so if you are looking for that you might want to search elsewhere. I am really just trying to take WH13 plots and convert them to a high school setting for the fun of it. Finally, enjoy the new chapter!

Chapter 4

The next Saturday Myka showed up early to detention, after all if she had hung around the house her father would have just made her do inventory in the bookstore and at least this way she could take a moment and enjoy her coffee. When she showed up in the basement she was surprised to find that she wasn't the first one there.

Lying with her head on the desk, looking completely exhausted was Claudia. Myka tried to be as quiet as possible she moved to sit down, just in case the girl was truly asleep, but as she pulled out the chair Claudia jerked awake and looked up at her a bit confused, "Why are you here this early?"

"I had nothing better to do," Myka shrugged a bit and taking a sip of her coffee, "You?"

"I just love unpacking boxes so much, I couldn't wait to get started," Claudia replied curtly in an attempt to prevent further questioning but Myka didn't let it go. "You look tired."

"Yeah well, I was just so excited I couldn't sleep."

Myka watched her for a second before saying softly, "You know you don't always have to do that. If you don't want to talk, that's okay but I don't want you to feel like you have to keep your guard up around me. I could be on your side if you'd let me."

Claudia didn't answer just rolled her eyes and laid her head back down after awhile she said, "I have nightmares sometimes. They kept me up."

Myka smiled softly, nodded and handed over the rest of her coffee to Claudia who took it gladly. She sat up and started drinking, idly taking to Myka, when the door opened. Both girls turned to looking over to see which of their fellow delinquents were joining them next and were shocked to see Professor Neilson coming in holding a platter covered in aluminum foil.

"What are you two doing here?" He asked in gruff surprised when he finally realized they were there.

"Um, Saturday detention," Claudia replied exchanging a confused look with Myka, "You should remember, you gave it to me."

"What are you doing here, Professor?" Myka asked as politely as she could.

"What? Nothing. I just…Here," He mumbled out and handed the platter to Myka who took it and opened it to reveal two-dozen cookies.

Claudia, who was leaning over the table to see what is was, raised an eyebrow, "You made us cookies?"

"I did not 'make' you cookies, I made cookies and there were extras so I thought..maybe…you know what? Nevermind!" With that he turned and left muttering something about 'ungrateful trouble makers'.

"Thank you," Myka called after him but she wasn't sure if he had actually heard her. She put the cookies on the table as Claudia examined them skeptically, "I wonder if they're poisoned."

"Why would a teacher poison cookies?" Myke replied doubtfully.

"Why would a teacher make us cookies?"

"I'm sure we was just trying to be nice…."

"I think my theory is much more likely," Claudia replied and held out a cookie for Myka to taste, "If you are sure they aren't dangerous then eat one."

Myka hesitated, "I don't eat sugar."

"Lie," Steve said and both girls turned to look at him and Helena who had just walked in the room.

"What exacting are you two discussing?" Helena asked coming over, a bemused look on her face.

"Professor Neilson made us cookies," Myka started ready to let the whole thing drop but Claudia cut in, "And we believe they are poisonous. "

"That's absurd," Helena replied and Myka felt justified, "It's an entirely inefficient way to kill us. Unless all of us at the cookies simultaneous, we would have been able to identify him as the culprit."

"Not if it was a slow acting poison," Steve countered coming over to examine the plate of cookies, "No one else is at the school and he probably knows this place well enough to avoid cameras. If the poison didn't kill us till later on tonight they may be able to track the poison back to these cookies but since this is just a plain paper plate there is no guarantee they would be able to trace it back to the Professor. Was he wearing gloves when he gave you the cookies."

"I think he was!" Claudia chimed in excitedly.

"He was not!" Myka cut in exasperated by this conversation, "Look guys, I promise you the cookies aren't poisoned."

"Quite right," Helena agreed not giving up her position, "Even if the poison didn't kill us immediately, it's a huge risk to just assume all of us would eat the cookies, it would be much more effectual to wait until the room is sealed off and then pump the toxin directly into the room. That way we wouldn't be able to escape."

Everyone took a second to look at the air vents suspiciously before Myka came to her senses and yelled, "Professor Neilson is not trying to kill us!"

"Ouch Myka, not so loud," Pete said wincing and coming toward them, "Ooo cookies!" Before anyone could say anything he came over picked up three and shoved them into his mouth.

Claudia watched him carefully as he ate them, "How do you feel?"

"Horrible," Pete said through his mouth full of cookies before he swallowed so he could elaborate, "My head is killing me and I may just puke."

The four of them just stared at Pete stunned and Pete shrugged, "Guys chill, it's just a hangover."

"See," Myka said shaking her head, "No poison, now can we start working?"

"We actually can't make that conclusion yet," Helena pointed out, "We will have to continue to monitor him over the course of the day, as Steve pointed out there is still plenty of time for the toxin to kill him."

"Say what now?" Pete asked confused.

A few hours later it became clear that if the poison didn't kill Pete, the hangover just might. After throwing up in a trashcan they had found, which thankfully came with a lid (that helped keep the room from smelling too badly) and weirdly came with a plushy green monster stuffed inside (which was now ruined), he had fallen asleep sitting up in one of the chairs. Instead of waking him up though, Steve and Claudia had decided he would make a great model for select objects they had found. Myka was pretty sure not all of the pictures they took were for inventory.

At the moment they had placed a pink sombrero on his head and given him what was possible the world's tackiest clip-on earrings. They were currently debating the odds of him waking up if they tried to apply makeup to him.

Myka, who was actually working rolled her eyes and looked over at Helena who was pulling out a rainbow feather boa, "I think we are the only adults here."

Helena smiled at her and came over placing the boa on Myka's shoulders but keeping ahold of both ends. "Relax darling, they are just having fun," She leaned in closer and Myka stiffened a bit feeling a nervous bubble in her chest she couldn't explain as Helena said softly, "Besides being an adult is a bore."

Then she was gone, letting the boa trail off Myka's neck as she headed toward the others so she could add it to Pete's ensemble.

"I think he looks quite dashing," Helena said as she stepped back to admire their work.

"He looks ridiculously," Myka said scornfully and when the others turned to glare at her she held out a pair of pineapple shaped sunglasses, "How can you expect him to go out in public with his glasses?"

"Perfect," Claudia said with a wicked grin and slipped them on his face.

Pete snorted and jerked awake looking around confused before he caught his reflection in the mirror, "Hey, hey, hey, even as a chick I look good." He did a small dance and the others laughed.

"Yeah, you look great," Myka agreed shaking her head at him, "You should have worn it to your party last night."

"Aww man," Pete said smirking and sat up stretching a bit, "The party last night was awesome! Why didn't you guys come?"

They all exchanged looks for a second making it clear that they all thought this was a dumb question.

"You're serious?" Steve finally asked when it was clear that none of them knew what to say.

"Yeah," Pete said shaking his head, "Look I know you all probably think you are too cool to come hang out with us normal people but these things can be a lot of fun. Look I'm hosting a party tonight at my house and you guys have to come!"

Almost simultaneous the four of the started listing off excuses why they couldn't make it, but Pete just shook them off. "I'm not taking no for an answer! My house, 9 o'clock and, look, worse comes to worse at least you guys have each other to talk to." When everyone still looked hesitant he added, "Come on, it's a party, what's the worse that can happen?"

"Okay, I'm in," Claudia consented and one by one the others agreed as well.

"So who's up for lunch?" Pete asked when the door unlocked an hour later, "I'm thinking Mexican."

"Pete you just spent all morning throwing up, how can you possible want to eat?" Myka asked pointing to the trashcan for emphasis, which she had insisted on taking outside and placing next to the school dumpsters.

"Because my stomach is now empty," Pete replied as if it was obvious.

"I'm in if we're doing Mexican food," Claudia volunteered earning her a high-five from Pete. "Okay, who else is in?"

"I could do for some Mexican," Steve agreed which wasn't really true but he had to avoid his house somehow.

"How about you HG?" Claudia asked smiling at Helena.

"HG?" Myka asked confused and Claudia smiled and nodded, "Yeah it's her new nickname, like HG Wells."

"Fitting," Myka agreed and was rewarded by sly smiled from Helena that made Myka feel warm all over.

"Righty Ho then," Helena said turning her attention to Pete, "Lead the way." It was one of Myka's favorite things about Univille that you could really walk anywhere in town. Of course the town was only about five blocks and everyone knew everyone else's business, which was not enjoyable but overall she guessed there was worse places to live. Maybe.

They got a table near the back of the restaurant and were brought complimentary chips and salsa which Pete and Claudia immediately dug into.

"So how much longer do you think we have to keep doing this?" Pete asked his mouth half filled with food, "I mean, me and Myka worked out our whole partner issues so we should be good to go right?"

"'Myka and I'" Helena corrected a took a chip chewing it completely before she continued, "and if that is what is necessary to clear us then I am certainly in trouble. I still maintain I didn't do anything wrong."

"Yeah, and it's not like Marcus and I are ever going to get along," Claudia agreed picking at the crumbs in the now empty chip basket.

"Marcus?" Steve asked curiously as a bus boy brought over more chips.

"Yeah, he's my foster brother, I got sent to detention for accidently shocking him."

"Accidently?"

Claudia just shrugged and smirked a bit, "He stole my pen, it is hardly my fault I was in the middle of turning it into a laser at the time. He touched one of the exposed wires and next thing he knew he was on the floor and I was in detention."

Pete couldn't stop laughing at that until the waiter came around to take everyone's orders, everyone's except Claudia's who insisted she was full from the chips.

"Okay Jinxy, your turn," Pete said once the girl was gone, "Who gave you the fat lip and why doesn't he get to join us at the crack of dawn every week?"

Steve just shrugged, "Just some football player who was…confused. He didn't appreciate when I pointed it out either. He was gone by the time Dr. Vanessa showed up. I think Mrs. F was hoping if I would give the kid up if she threatened me with detention."

"But you didn't," Myka pointed out and Steve just shrugged, "I'm not a snitch and I didn't think it would actually help the situation."

"So noble," Claudia teased but there was real appreciation in her voice that made Steve smiled. He did not quite know why but it meant a lot to him that she approved of his actions. When their food finally came he made sure to push his plate closer to her so she could pick off it if she wanted too.


	5. Why you don't bring tasers to parties

A/N: Warning: Underage drinking and character death...

Chapter five

"You are going to a party?" Myka's father asked skeptically and Myka couldn't help but feel like she was on trial.

"Yes," Myka said standing a bit straighter. Her sister Tracy snorted and mumbled, "More like crashing a party." Their father shot a glance at Tracy but didn't reprehend her as he would have done with Myka, just one of the many examples of the double standard that existed between them.

"Were you invited to this party?" Myka's father asked suspiciously which made her bristle a bit, her father was surprised that she wanted to attend a high school party but for some reason it was plausible that she would just show up where she wasn't wanted, "Yes, dad, Pete invited me, he is the one throwing the party."

"Pete Lattimer?" Her sister said in complete disbelieve, "You got invited to Pete Lattimer's party?"

"Yes," Myka replied defensively and couldn't help adding, "We're friends." Myka didn't know if this was true or not but it was worth stating just to see the look on Tracey's face. Her father on the other hand was not amused.

"He is one of the kids you met in detention?" Myka paused for a second, she had never been able to lie to her father, although technically she hadn't. "No, sir. He's my lab partner for the science fair."

Her father snorted slightly, content with that answer but then came the question that she had been dreading, "Will there be supervision?" Given the state in which Pete had turned up in this morning Myka knew this was highly unlikely, but she couldn't tell her father that. Luckily, and surprisingly, her sister chose that moment to decide to be helpful.

"Of course there will be, Dad," Tracey said smiling in that way she did that always seemed to make him cave, although she rarely used it for Myka's benefit and Myka was unsure of why she was doing it now, "It was the party I was telling you about earlier this week. The one you said I couldn't go to because Pete was a junior and you didn't know the boy or anyone else who going. .."

Oh that's why she helping me, Myka thought to herself, she should know better then to underestimate Tracey by now.

"But now Myka is going," Tracey continued still smiling that smile, "and we both know nothing bad is going to happen on Myka's watch."

Suddenly this party sounded like a lot less fun, which was saying something, cause she didn't particularly want to go to this thing in the first place.

"Fine you two can go together but be home by eleven," Her father finally consented and Tracey squealed and went over to huge him but all Myka could think was that this was going to be a long party.

Myka was just planning to go to this thing in the jeans and t-shirt she had been wearing all day but her sister simply refused to let Myka embarrass her like that so after much back and forth Myka left the house were jeans, although they were much tighter then the ones she had been previously wearing, and a shirt she was pretty sure made her look like a whore but Tracey insisted she looked good. Either way, she felt pretty self-conscious by the time she arrived at Pete's house.

Tracey took off as soon as they got there leaving Myka to stand awkwardly in Pete's backyard. His house was pretty average for Univille although it did have a pool which Myka supposed would be nice during the hot summer months but it was too cool this late in the season for people to do more than stick their feet in.

"Hello Darling," HG said coming up on Myka smiling her eyes glancing over her, "What an interesting outfit."

"My sister dressed me," Myka said sighing and crossed her arms as if that would help take the focuse off her shirt, "I'm glad you showed up, I was getting tired of being the weirdo in the corner."

"There was no need to worry," Helena said smirking at her, "I would never have stood you up."

Myka smiled but was saved the from having to answer by the arrival of Claudia, who despite being tiny had spotted them and was able to make a beeline straight for them, "Hey, what's up? Myka what are you wearing? You look ridiculous."

"It's not my fault! My sister dressed me, okay?" Myka replied a bit defensively crossing her arms tighter and trying to ignore the smirk on the younger girl's face.

"Hey guys…"

"My sister dressed me!" Myka yelled and turned to see Steve who looked completely surprised and a bit scared.

"Um…okay?"

"Sorry," Myka said shaking her head, "I'm just a bit tense."

"I can see that," Jinxy said giving her a small smile and started to stay, "Do you want.." but he was cut off by the arrival of Pete who seemed a bit gone already.

"Hey guys," Pete said happily, "Myka, you look hot!"

"I wouldn't start that," Claudia warned but by this point Myka had given up and just mumbled a thank you.

"So anyone want something drink?" Pete asked and when Claudia raised her hand he shook his head, "Cept you. I may bend the rules sometime but even I know better then to give alcohol to a fourteen year old."

"Lame," Claudia muttered and stuck her tongue out at Pete, who returned it with as much maturity, "Anyone else want a anything?"

"I wouldn't mind a glass of wine, since your government's restrictions are so strict I haven't been able to have any since I left London," Helena said and when the others stared at her she shrugged, "I am legal after all."

"In Europe not here in the US," Myka pointed out.

"Also this is an illegal keggar not a dinner party at a country club," Pete pointed out smirking at her, "So no wine. But, hey, I can get you a beer."

"I suppose that will do," Helena said clearly disappointed as Pete slipped off to the keg and poured some for HG bringing it back over.

"Cheers!" Helena said taking a sip and immediately gagging as she attempted to swallow the liquid, "What the Bloody Hell was that!"

"It's beer!" Pete said defensively accepting the red solo cup that she thrust back at him.

"I have been drinking beer for quite awhile and I can assure you, that is not what that is!"

"Hey, good beer isn't cheap!" Pete replied and raised the glass in a mock toast, "Welcome to America!" With that he drained the glass and went to get himself another.

Myka couldn't help but smirk at the look on Helena's face but she took pity on the girl and took her hand, "Come on HG, let's go get you a glass of water to wash that taste out of your mouth."

The two left, heading into the house where Myka found some glasses in a cabinet and filled them up before the two moved to find a corner out of the way of the people dancing.

"You think this whole thing is quite funny don't you," HG asked Myka once she had drank half her glass.

"I little bit, yeah," Myka said and HG shook her head examining Myka closely. "You know Pete was right, that outfit is very flattering on you."

Myka smiled and found herself feeling better about the whole thing.

"So is this what all American parties are like?" Helena asked curiously as they watched half-drunk girls attempt to dance with wasted guys. A few such guys attempted to get Helena to dance with them but she had waved them.

"I wouldn't know," Myka said shrugging a bit, "I've never been to one before."

"I can see why," Helena said moving slightly so she wouldn't get wet as a girl spilled her drink all over the floor, "Although if this is your first party we should try to have some fun." She took Myka's hand and tried to pull her along but Myka held her ground, "Where are we going?"

"To dance, of course." Myka gave her an uncomfortable laugh and shook her head, "I don't think so. I don't dance."

"Relax darling," Helena said giving her hand a tug, "I'll teach you. You need to learn to have a little fun."

"I'm fun!" Myka said defensively letting Helena lead her this time, "I'm a lot of fun."

"I'm sure you are darling," Helena said smirking at Myka in a way that would have made her blush, if she was that type of person, as she lead Myka off to the side of the dance floor. Once there she placed her hands on Myka's waist as she tried to lead her and Myka attempted to follow awkwardly. She stepped on HG's foot a few times, but Helena merely laughed and Myka began to relax. She felt happy dancing with Helena and she didn't want this moment to stop. Sadly just as she thought that a shrill scream came from outside,

"STEVE!"

After Myka and HG left to go find water Claudia and Steve found seats on one of the pool lounge chairs and just sat there people watching and talking. It was particularly funny watching Pete who seemed to have a problem with hitting on girls who already had boyfriend. After a bit Claudia got up announcing that she was going to find something to drink.

"Nothing with alcohol," Steve called after her and she waved him off.

"Sure thing Mom!" Steve laughed at the response watching her head off to the table where all the drinks were set up before turning to look back at the crowd. A new guy had just shown up and was angrily making his way through the crowd toward the drink table holding a strange looking object.

Steve didn't know who the guy was and he certainly didn't know what he was carrying but with the patchwork metal cover and the helter-skelter of wires sticking out of it, there was no doubt in his mind who it had made it. Steve got up then and went to head the kid off meeting him at the edge of the pool.

"Hey, I'm Steve and you are?" he said attempting to distract the guy.

"Get out of me way," The guy growled and attempted to push past Steve but he held his ground.

"I really think you need calm down," Steve said simply but the guy continued to push him, this time he used Claudia's device. At first Steve didn't feel any pain, just a tingling warmth spreading from the spot were the metal touched him. Then he hit the water and the warmth turned to fire and the world went black around him.

Pete heard splash and turned to yell at the kids to get out of the pool, when he noticed sparks flying form the water and a guy drop something and run in the other direction.

Then he heard Claudia start screaming Steve's name as she ran toward the pool. Putting two and two together he grabbed the rubber gloves his mother used to clean the pool and ran over, grabbing Claudia by the shoulders when she attempted to reach in.

"Claudia wait!" Pete said when she fought him, "The electricity!" Claudia nodded when she realized what he was implying and moved to let him get by her. Luckily, Pete's mom always put way to much of the salt in the water, it had helped to amplify the charge but it also kept Steve's body floating where he could reach him.

Once he had fished Steve out he laid him out on his back and checked his vitals. He might not have been the brightest guy but he was the son of a fireman and he knew that you always had to keep calm, even when your friend isn't breathing.

Pete took a deep breath and looked around at the crowd of people who were standing around in an entirely unhelpful manor, his father had also taught him CPR but that had been a long time ago.

"Does anyone know CPR?" Pete yelled looking for Myka, he was willing to bet she did, but Claudia had already wedged her way to Steve's side and started compressions before anyone else could volunteer.

Pete didn't know if the girl was certified or not but by the look of determination on her face their wasn't anyway he could stop her from doing this.

"What happened here?" Helena asked as she and Myka were finaly able to make their way through the crowd and over to them.

"Myka call nine-one-one," Pete said and she immediately did so as Pete turned to answer Helena, "Some kid.."

"Marcus," Claudia cut in still focusing on Steve.

"Some kid named Marcus used this weird thing….

"A taser."

"Right, a weird taser thing on Steve and pushed him into the pool," Pete finished in a softer voice, "He isn't breathing."

Myka looked at them holding the phone away from her ear, "They will be here shortly, how long has he…been like this."

"I don't know, Mykes, we got him out as fast as we could, I…" he got cut off by a gagging sound as Steve turned his head and started vomiting water. He took a moment to catch his breath before laying his head back and looking at them, "What happened?"

Claudia gave a weak laugh and smiled down at him, "It turns out you were right, Jinxy. Building a taser was a bad idea."

A/N: Well sorta character death... "Claudia: You know, a lot of people experience clinical death for a few minutes.  
Steve: How many minutes was I dead for?  
Relax Steve it was only three minutes this time...


	6. Things you learn when you pay attention

A/N Chapter six where I will tackle many of the questions you didn't asked and probably already know the answers too.

To **CastleTyger**, who actually did ask a question: It was entirely unintentional. I enjoy HG and Myka together and I did plan to let them be together eventually, but it is not the main point of the story, which is why I kept if subtle at first. It won't be in every chapter but I enjoy writing those scenes so there will probably be more.

Line breaks for easy reading courtesy of **curiositycollection** who informed me how to add them.

* * *

Chapter Six

"You went to a high school party where the cops were called," Myka's father said with a deadly calm and Myka thought that was an extreme simplification of what had happened. First of all, only one cop had showed up and all he did was take their statements, besides by that time the party was already over, once it was obvious no one was dead most people lost interest and took off. Plus he didn't seem to be taking into account at all that she was the one who had called nine-one-one in the first place. She could have saved Steve's life but all her father saw was that Myka had screwed up. Again.

It didn't help at all that in Tracey's version of the story had Myka running off as soon as they had arrived, leaving Tracey alone at a strange party, which apparently meant that she had no choice but to drink to calm her nerves.

Her father hadn't bought the story and for once Tracey had gotten her fair share of abuse but that didn't stop Tracey's drinking from being Myka's fault. After all Myka should have been taking better care of her, keeping her out of trouble. Myka didn't say anything to these accusations though, years of this had lead her to the understanding the best thing to do was to stay quite.

It was easier this time then it usually was because her thoughts kept going back to Steve. By the time the paramedics had come, Steve was fully conscious and able to sit up with some help. After a quick examination they had decided that he had some bruised ribs, which had impressed Myka because who would have thought that tiny girl could have done real damage, and had taken him to the hospital for observation. This left the four of them, plus Tracey who was pouting on a piece of pool furniture, only at the party. Actually it was just the three of them because at some point during the commotion Claudia had slipped away, taking her small taser with her.

Pete had managed to get off with just a long, stern, talking too by one of the firemen who had apparently known his father and convinced the others and the lone cop to let him deal with it. In a small town like this, people often thought that a good lecture was better than the police actually getting involved, plus it meant less paper work for them.

Once the last of the adults had left, Myka would have stayed to help clean up but Tracey, who was bored and embarrassed by the fact that her sister had been the one to call the police, refused to stick around any longer and stated that she was walking home with or without Myka. With a quick apology to Pete and HG she had left, mentally preparing herself for this beratement.

Over all she thought she was handling it pretty well although the part about needing better friend almost made her snap. In the end, she wasn't even grounded she just got that look of utter disappointed and a "I expected better from you," before her father turned and left without another word.

Myka would have preferred to be grounded.

* * *

Steve was escorted into his room by the nurse that had taken him for all the tests. They had insisted that he was fine but still didn't want to discharge him until the morning.

"STEVE!" He shouldn't have been surprised that his mother was there but it somehow may the whole situation much worse. She came over and attempted to hug him but Steve held out a hand to stop her, "Please don't."

The look of hurt on her face was lessoned as the nurse explained that he had bruised his ribs and she nodded, "Or course. Come lay down, Steven. What happened?"

"Nothing mom, I'm fine," he replied curtly getting into the bed doing his best not to wince.

"You not fine, Steven. You are bruised, you were electrocuted, Steve, they told me you stopped breathing! That is not fine. Please, just tell me what happened."

Steve watched his mother, she looked so distraught he felt guilty for not being more open but he didn't know how to talk to her anymore. Before Olivia there hadn't been any secrets in his house, the three of them had shared everything. He did miss that; he just didn't know how to get back to it. He opened his mouth to tell her everything but what came out was, "It was just an accident, Mom."

His mother sighed a bit and let it drop, "Fine Steven. Just try to be more careful, we've had enough accidents tear apart this family already."

Steve nodded feeling guilty and wanting to say something else but before he could his Mother said, "Also, Steve, I think there is a girl here who wants to see you."

"What?" Steve said turning to look at the door but no one was there, "Where?"

"A young girl in stolen scrubs has been walking past the door every few minutes pushing the same food cart for the past thirty minutes." Steve couldn't help but smile at that, "How do you know the scrubs are stolen?"

"You'll see," His mother said giving him a small smile and both turned to watch the door. They didn't have to wait long before Claudia came into view, wearing nursing scrubs they were at least three sizes to big and pushing an empty cart. When she saw that Steve was in the room, she calmly set the cart against the wall and walked into the room. She glanced at Steve's mom and apparently decided that she need to stay in character, "How are you feeling, sir?"

Steve did his best not to laugh as his mother got up smiling, "It seems you are in good hands, Steven, so I am going to get some coffee." As she left, Steve turned to Claudia, "Why are you wearing that?"

"I'm being stealth dude," Claudia replied and went to sit on his bed.

"Yes, you fit right in. My mother had no idea you weren't really a nurse."

"Shut up, poopy pants, these were the smallest size I could find," Claudia said making at face at him.

Steve chuckled and shook his head, "How did you get here anyway?"

"I hid in the back of the ambulance, then I snuck in, liberated the clothes and hacked the system to figure out which room you were in."

"Of course you did," Steve said a bit exasperate. Claudia nodded falling silent and playing with the blanket on the bed, not looking at Steve.

"I'm sorry," She said softly and to Steve's surprise she sound like she was about to cry, "It's all my fault your like this. I should never have even built that thing, I just thought it would have good to have, but I left it lying around and Marcus got it and you shouldn't have gotten in the way but you did and I know that you just did that for me and …"

"Claudia!" Steve cut in as forcefully as he could manage, "This isn't your fault."

"But I.."

"No," Steve said shaking his head and giving her a small smile, "Besides, even if it was, you did save my life, so that makes us even."

"You still shouldn't have gotten in his way just for me," Claudia muttered softly.

"Claudia…"

"Fine I'll drop it."

"Good," Steve said and smiled at her, "Now I should get some rest, someone nearly broke my ribs today."

Claudia just smiled and moved off the bed getting a chair and moving it next to the bed.

"What are you doing?" Steve asked watching her suspiciously. Claudia just shrugged sitting down, "I'm just going to sit with you until you fall asleep."

Steve smiled and nodded turning on the TV so he had something to fall asleep too.

When Steve's mother came in a bit later she found Steve engrossed in a TV movie and the young girl asleep with her head on Steve's bed.

* * *

There are things you learn about people when you pay attention. Such as there seemed to be a direct correlation between the intelligence of the guy and the amount he was attracted to her. The more stupid they were the more they wanted her.

"It's your accent," Pete explained to HG when she complained about it, "Those guys are so distracted by it they don't notice your personality." That earned him a bruised arm from Myka.

It also seemed that Helena had no relationship with MacPherson, which was odd given that he hosted her.

"We don't really interact much," Helena admitted one day at lunch. Ever since that first Monday they had continued to eat as a group, "He is always busy."

"He's a teacher," Pete pointed out, "He's not even a really good teacher."

"What's your point?" Claudia asked curiously as she ate Pete's tator tots.

"How much stuff could he really have to do?"

Helena just shrugged, "Well I have no idea, he spends all his extra time locked in his office."

"I just get a bad feeling about the guy." Pete said not buying it and glanced at Steve who just shrugged to indicate she wasn't lying.

That was something they had learned about Steve, he always knew when someone was being less than honest and he wasn't afraid to point it out.

"It's just something I've always been able to do," Steve said shrugging it off.

"Does the person have to know they are lying?" Myka asked curiously.

"What do you mean?"

"For example, I tell Pete all sorts of things about England that isn't true," Helena volunteered and Pete looked affronted, "If he believes it when he tells it to you will it trigger it?"

"No," Steve said shaking his head, "Pete wouldn't be lying, he would just be wrong."

"And if your lie detector went off whenever Pete was wrong it would never get a break," Claudia replied which earned her a carrot being thrown at her.

"Although I can tell when a person is lying to themselves even if the don't realize they are lying," Steve added smiling, "That's what happened with the jock, he really wanted to believe what he was saying but I knew it wasn't true."

"And maybe if you learn to stop saying it out loud, you wouldn't have to worry about getting hit in the face," Pete pointed out, "So people in London don't really wear top hats all the time?"

Myka also noticed that besides sleeping through Calculus, Claudia could be found falling asleep all over the school. Myka had taken to bringing the girl coffee every morning, and while it didn't solve the real problem, it did seem to help the girl stay awake through math.

Not that she needed to be awake for the class.

Professor Neilson was walking around the class checking the homework when he came to Claudia, "I guess I shouldn't even bother asking if did the work." Claudia just held out a piece of paper to the Professor who raised an eyebrow as he took it before glaring at her, "You just wrote down the answers."

"You said we only had to work out the difficult parts of the problem," Claudia pointed out shrugging, "It's not my fault none of problems were difficult."

"Well then, you wouldn't mind working out the problem on the board," Professor Neilson smirking and handing her the dry-erase marker. Claudia grumbled softly but took it and headed to the bored as the Professor added, "So that the entire class can follow the work."

Claudia seemed to both under and over estimate the intelligence of her classmates. She would write out the simple multiplication parts and then skip the next step in the problem completely. By the time she was finished, not even Myka could follow her train of thought. Professor Neilson apparently could and just nodded gruffly letting Claudia sit down before turning to the class, "Any questions?"

Everyone raised their hand.

As for Pete, despite the fact that everyone seemed to want to interact with him, no one really seemed to want to talk to him. He was already a big star from his wrestling career, and Myka had to admit he was good (or at least he continued to win so she assumed he was good), but every since the party he seemed to be a bigger deal. Apparently having someone die at your party upped your popularity.

Pete seemed to understand that this attention was superficial, it's why he hung out with the rest of them instead of his adoring fans, but he also seemed to be unable to let go of it.

"So what about Sarah?" Pete asked glancing at the girl over Claudia's head and handing her the extra apple from his lunch, they had all started to pack more food to give to the girl.

"What about her?" Myka asked only half paying attention, "Either asked her out or don't, it's not that big of a deal."

Pete just shook his head, "I don't know, why I am asking any of you."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Myka asked a bit offended and the sentiment seemed to be unanimous between Helena and Claudia as well.

"She's fourteen, you're a nerd and she's British."

"Hey," Myka interjected, "I've been in a serious relationship before."

"Same for me as well," Helena agreed emphatically, "Many of my lovers were men." This statement was met by a small pause before Steve replied,

"That's funny, all of mine were men." Where Helena's declaration had stunned the others Steve's had the opposite result.

"Nice!" Pete declared overly excited, "Gay wing man is much better then girl best friend. This weekend, you and me at that club on ninth, we'll pick up so many chicks, and hey, if you want we can find some dudes too."

"Please no," Steve said wishing he had kept his mouth shut.

"Come on," Pete said visible disappointed, "What's the worst that can happen?"

"Last time you said that I died," Steve pointed out but eventually he relented.

Last was Myka, who it turned out did eat sugar but only when aggravated, was not above giving you the answers to homework but it took a lot of groveling to get her to do so and whose issues with her fathers came out in relationship with her sister. Since Pete and Tracy ran in similar social circles Myka was constantly asking him for information about her sister's life.

"Chill Mykes," Pete said one day shaking his head at her, "You sister is fine, you need to stop worrying so much."

"I'm her older sister, if she get's in trouble it's my fault. It's not an easy job."

"Yeah well speaking as the younger sibling it's not a piece of cake either," Pete replied and Steve and Claudia nodded.

"No offence, Claude but I don't think your relationship with Marcus counts in this," Myka replied annoyed at being out numbered.

"What? No," Claudia answered shaking her head, "I have a real brother."

"Really?" Steve asked a bit annoyed by this fact, "Where is he?"

Claudia just shrugged a bit picking at the roll HG had given her, "I don't know, in Switzerland I think. He was nineteen when our parents died, but he was crazy smart. I lived with him at his college until there was an explosion in the lab he was working in. Everyone thought he died in it."

"But you don't think so," Helena pointed out, "Why not?"

"He came to visit me."

"Visit you?" Pete and Myka exchanged a look but didn't comment.

"Yeah, the night he supposedly died he came back to the room and woke me up. He said he had to go to Switzerland and he couldn't take me with him now but that he would contact me when it was safe," Claudia said simply.

"How long ago was this?" Steve asked trying not to sound skeptical but it sounded like something from a movie.

"Seven years ago," Claudia said sounding defensive now, "He is going to contact me, when he can."

"I'm sure he will, Claude," Myka said taking the girls hand. It didn't really matter if the rest of them believed it or not, in the end it just mattered what Claudia thought.


	7. Bow ties, billards and bus stations

A/N: Sorry it's been a few days since my last post. I've been on vacation but I'm back and will hopefully be able to get back to updating regularly. Thanks to everyone for reading and such.

* * *

Chapter seven

That Saturday they got a surprising about of work done. Everyone ate the cookies without any conspiracy theories and Pete wasn't hung over and falling asleep. Sure, they were all still playing with the junk that came out of the boxes but who could blame them. At this pace they could make it through all the boxes in two more detention sessions if it wasn't for the fact that Myka was sure that every time they came in there were more boxes then there was the week before.

She would have pointed this fact but that would have promoted a long a ridiculous conversations about where the boxes came from.

"Hey, check it out!" Pete said pulling out a bow tie and holding it up, "Bow ties are cool."

"Not as cool as my fez," Claudia countered popping up from behind a box wearing a red fez on her head. Both looked over at Steve to see what he had found but he just shrugged, "All I have is this mop."

They took turns taking pictures of all the items with Steve's phone as Myka pulled out two fencing foils from one the boxes and smiled.

"Helena," Myka called and when she looked up, Myka tossed her one of the foils, which she caught easily, "Want to go a round?"

"I'm not going to fight you, darling," Helena said shaking her head, "It wouldn't be fair, you are American after all."

"Come on," Myka goaded smiling at her, "It will be fun and you are the one that said I should have more fun."

"If you insist," HG said smirking at her, "But I did try to warn you." The others helped them clear an area to act as their stage, Pete and Steve sat at either end and Claudia sat in the middle so that they could better judge when a point was scored.

Helena smiled and lunged first; her attack was pretty mild just to test the waters, but when Myka blocked it easily Helena decided she could treat this like a real match. Helena remembered being nearly unbeatable in fencing, but that had been back at school before…well, before her life had fallen apart and it soon became clear that Myka was very well trained.

Helena had scored a few points but Myka was almost to four and she didn't think she had a chance of winning so she decided to improvise. The next time Myka attacked HG dropped her foil and ducked under Myka's arm grabbing it as she did so. She twisted her arm slightly forcing Myka to drop her foil as well. She had planned to pin Myka's arm behind her back but Myka recovered too quickly and followed the momentum of Helena's attack so she could turn to face her as she tried to kick Helena's feet out from under her. After that the fight quickly dissolved into a grappling match that ended with Myka and HG sitting on the floor facing each other as the tried to catch their breath.

"You cheated," Myka said and let go of Helena' arm where she was had ben holding onto in order to ward off one of HG's attacks.

"It was just creative dueling," Helena teased and let go of Myka's other hand and so she could lean back, "Also I'm not accustomed to losing."

"Me neither." Myka replied and smiled as she stood up and brushed herself off. She turned to face the others and noticed that they were staring at staring at her and Helena in a state of shock, "What?"

"That's was hot," Pete said smirking at them and Myka picked up a beanbag from one of the boxes and threw it at him.

"You guys have got to teach me how to do that," Claudia said in such complete awe that it made Myka laugh.

The inventory was then delayed longer as HG and Myka conducted a small self-defense class for Claudia. Pete even showed her some wrestling moves for fun, although Myka didn't see the point. The girl was tiny enough that her only chance in a fight was by being fast and hitting weak spots, but Claudia was eager to learn everything. They were only able to get back to work by promising to make the lessons a regular event.

"So I'll meet you at the coffee bar at eight tonight," Pete informed Steve as they were leaving that day.

"I want to come," Claudia said walking beside them, "It's always fun watching Pete make a fool of himself."

"No way," Pete said shaking his head at her, "This is a guy's night. No girls allowed."

"Except for the ones you are trying to pick up," Myka pointed out smirking at him.

"Yeah, except for them," Pete agreed, "I'm going to confiscate Steve's phone and everything."

"You are going to do what?" Steve asked skeptically and Pete shook his head at him as he replied, "I'm not an idiot, if I let you keep the phone, you two will just be texting each other all night. This is guy time." Even though, Claudia didn't actually have a phone, she had set up a program so that she could send messages to them from her computer, which she always carried with her.

"Don't worry, Claude," Myka said putting her arm around Claudia's shoulder, "We'll just have a girls night."

"Quite right," Helena said smiling at her, "We can go to the cinema and then I'll teach you seven ways to kill a man."

"Seriously?!" Claudia said and waved Steve and Pete away, "You guys have fun."

* * *

It took them forever to decide on a movie because none of recognized any of the titles. The three girls stood in front of the movie kiosk for a good ten minutes trying to figure out what to see before Myka decided to ask the kid behind the counter what he thought.

In the end they decided to see the movie that the ticket seller thought was the worst because he was trying way too hard to flirt with HG and according to the Helena rule that meant he was an idiot. It seemed a good bet to do the opposite of what he suggested.

Myka had been prepared to buy Claudia's ticket for her but the girl had been determine to pay her own way. Of course she did so entirely in quarters and crumpled up dollar bills but it seemed to be a source of pride with her so Myka and HG didn't interfere. The ticket teller was a bit frustrated with it though.

The movie, it turned out, was just as bad as the guy had said it was. Though, luckily, it has also turned the corner from being so bad it was actually quite funny, and slightly painful, to watch. As they left the theater Helena took a moment to apologize to the boy for doubting his judgment. Myka was pretty sure that had made the boy's day.

They all milled around after the movie in the theater parking lot, unsure what to do next, none of them wanted the night to be over but there wasn't a lot of alternatives in Univille.

"We could go to the coffee shop on forth, " Helena suggested finally, "I have been informed by many guys that it is, how did they put it..'the place to be on Saturday night'."

Myka nodded a bit, "It's not bad, there are some small bands from the area that play there and it doesn't get too crazy."

"That's were Steve and Pete were going," Claudia pointed out, purposely leaving out the problem that crossed her mind.

"Splendid," HG said smiling, "We can head there then, I've never been a fan of this 'no girls allowed' mentality anyway."

Helena's comment made Myka pause though, as she remembered the real reason the Pete had instituted the no girls rule, "We can't go there, it's sixteen and up on Saturday nights."

Claudia raised a hand attempting to wave off this inconvenience, "No don't worry about me. I was planning on going back to the house anyway. You guys should go if you want to."

"Don't be absurd," Helena said shaking her head, "We aren't going to just leave you, we can figure out something else to entertain us."

"Yeah, Claude," Myka agreed, "We can just go grab food or something." Myka regretted saying this as soon as it was out of her mouth, because food cost money and money was something Claudia didn't have.

"No really guys," Claudia said hitching her bag up higher on her shoulder, "This has been great and all but I think I should get going, I mean I have things to do. Homework and um..chores and stuff. You guys should go have fun, I'm totally fine on my own. I'll see you on Monday." And with that she took off, leaving Helena and Myka standing there unsure of what to do.

"Should we go after her?" Helena asked looking at Myka as if she would know how to best handle the situation.

"I'm not sure that will help at this point," Myka said shaking her head, "She's got a lot of pride. I wish she would just let us help her though."

Helena nodded a bit, "Do you still wish to go to coffee shop or is the mood gone now?"

In the end they did decided to go but Myka resolved that in the morning she'd see if Claudia wanted to help in the store, she seemed like the type of person who'd enjoy working with the books.

* * *

Steve had to admit that he was having fun. He had never spent a lot of time alone with Pete before and it turns out he was pretty cool. Sure, he could be childish sometimes, but he also didn't seem to care what anyone thought about him. Pete seemed to be completely comfortable with himself, something Steve really needed to work on.

He also seemed completely comfortable with who Steve was. Pete didn't make Steve go up and talk to anyone, for which Steve was grateful for, but he did make Steve explain why he would or would not date the different guys Pete picked out of the crowd.

Steve tried to play the same game with Pete but as it turned out Pete was a lot less picky with girls then Steve was with guys so it wasn't as fun.

The two had occupied a table in the back of the crowded room because it was easier to people watch so they spotted Myka and Helena the moment they walked in. Pete waved them over smiling as the girls headed their way.

"Where's Claudia?" Steve asked as they sat down and Myka frowned a bit.

"She headed home," Myka said and explained what had happened, "I think she was worried she was being a burden on us and she took off before we could rectify the situation."

They sat there for a while in silence, just listening to the music, but after a few songs the mood started to lighten. Pete and Helena got up to dance which has hilarious for Steve and Myka to watch because both were trying to lead and it resulted in them colliding several times before they decided it would be best just to dance by themselves.

They came back once the music was over and Pete took a seat next to Steve.

"I'm absolutely horrible at billiards," Helena said examining the recently vacated table.

"You know in America we call it Pool," Pete corrected and Helena waved him off turning to Myka, "Do you want to play?"

"Why do I have the feeling I am about to get hustled?" Myka replied watching Helena carefully but she got up anyway.

"I'm sure I have no idea what you are talking about, darling." As it turned out, HG was actually not trying to hustle Myka, she actually wasn't very good at it. She understood the concept of the game and could always identify the best angle at which to approach the ball she just never seemed to be able to hit the cue ball right.

"Come on, Mykes, you've got this!" Pete cheered from the table as he watched them play before he suddenly frowned.

"What's up?" Steve asked him curiously and Pete just shook his head. "I just had a really bad vibe. Where's your phone?"

Steve pulled out his phone, which Pete hadn't actually confiscated but he had insisted that Steve turn it off. Steve handed it over to him and Pete turned it on. He started messing with it for a minute before his face fell, "Oh, man, we need to leave."

Steve grabbed his phone back from Pete as Pete went to go get Myka and HG. Open on the screen was a message from Claudia that read:

'Hey Steve, I hope you are enjoying you guys night or whatever. Look, by the time you get this I am going to be on a plane to Switzerland. You and everyone else have been great but I can't do this anymore. I'm going to find my brother. I'll send you a message when I land. Please tell the others for me.

Your BFFWYLION,  
Claudia'

"Holy crap," Steve said and grabbed his stuff moving to join the others.

"She can't really have a plain ticket," Helena was saying as Steve approached her, "She paid for the movie with quarters."

"Do you really want to risk it?" Pete shot back. Helena looked like she was going to say something but Myka cut in. "Look whether she can get on a plane or not is irrelevant because obviously she is going to try. The closest airport is in Featherhead so she'll have to take a bus there. If she wasn't expecting us to get this for a few more hours we can still probably cut her off there if we leave now."

"Let's go," Steve said and headed out before the others.

* * *

The bus station in Univille was like most of Univille, run-down and forgotten, and at this time at night it was almost entirely empty so it wasn't hard to spot the tiny figure hunched over her computer in the corner.

They headed over to where Claudia sat with hoodie pulled up over her head and bent in so close to her computer it was hard to see her face. She didn't bother looking up when they came over she just said, "I'm going to find Joshua. There isn't anything you can say to stop me so you might as well leave."

"You can't just go to Switzerland," Pete answered shaking his head at her, "I mean, do you even have a passport?"

Still typing with one hand, Claudia reached into her bag and pulled out a passport handing it to him. The passport had Claudia's picture on but the name on it was Aida Adams and it had a birth date that made her sixteen.

"You have a fake passport," Steve said not at all surprised by this, he was pretty sure he was the only one here who actually believed she could make her way halfway across the world, he just didn't believe her brother would be waiting when she got there.

"It's real," Claudia said simply shrugging a bit, "It's just not really mine."

"What are you going to do when you get there?" Steve asked trying his best not to sound condescending, "Search the whole country until you find your brother?"

"Maybe," Claudia replied defiantly.

"You can't search a whole country, that will take years," Pete said trying to get her to understand that this plan was crazy.

"Actually Switzerland isn't that big," Helena corrected and Pete sent her a look. "Not helping."

None of this was helping, Myka thought to herself, none of this made any since. Why did she decide to leave all of a sudden? Sure, they hadn't parted on the best of terms tonight but this seemed an extreme reaction to their conversation and Claudia wasn't the type to for melodramatic displays so why did she decide to leave like this? Why wouldn't she look at any of them?

"Claudia, look at me," Myka said softly moving closer to her. Claudia stiffened slightly but didn't move, "Please."

Claudia finally looked up, glaring defiantly at them, a large purple bruise beginning to from on her cheek, "I am not going back there."

Steve sighed slightly and sat down next to her, "We aren't going to make you go back there, Claude."

"Does this happen a lot?" Myka asked softly going to sit on her other side.

Claudia just shrugged, tight jawed, "It's not going to happen again."

"Damn straight," Pete said looking like he was going to hit something himself.

"This must be illegal," Helena said shaking her head, "If we call the police they can take care of the man and…"

"Put me back into the system," Claudia finished for her, "And I'm sick of be shipped off. I'm not going throw all of this again. I'm going to find my brother."

Myka rubbed her head, they weren't getting anywhere, "Look Claudia, there has to be another option. Just come back with us tonight, okay? You can stay at one of our houses and we will figure out something."

"You can crash at my house, I have an extra room and my mom won't mind," Steve said nodding a bit and when Claudia still looked determined he took her hand, "Claudia, trust us. It will be okay."

She looked at all of them before she finally said, "Okay."

Steve smiled and got up waiting for Claudia as she picked up her bag stuffing her computer into it and her bus ticket into her pocket.

"How did you afford that anyway?" Pete asked as they started to head out.

"I just hacked the system and printed out a ticket."

"Of course you did…"


	8. Steve drinks weird tea

Chapter eight

"This is your sister's room?" Claudia asked although it was more of a statement then a question, because it was obvious that it was his sister's room.

"Yeah," Steve said standing by the doorframe and watching her as she looked around the room, "You can crash here for as long as you want."

Claudia just nodded a bit and sat down on the bed turning to look at Steve, "I like the room, but isn't it weird for you to have someone else in here?"

"Yeah," Steve replied frowning softly, "a bit, but I think she'd be okay with it." Claudia nodded and dropped her bag on the floor but she had no intention of unpacking it, despite what Steve said she knew better than to get comfortable in a new house.

"Do you need anything? Food or tea?"

"No, I'm fine," Claudia said and waved him off she tried to fake a yawn but it actually turned into a real one, "I think I'm just going to go to bed, it's late and all, so I guess I'll just get some sleep and see you the morning."

Steve nodded, he could take a hint even if Claudia didn't actually understand concept of subtlety, "Good night." Steve turned heading out of the room. She was right about it being late, but he still had a lot of things to do.

First off was to talk to his mother, when he had brought Claudia home he had gotten away with simply informing her that Claudia would be staying there and his mother had agreed without question. Now that there was time she was going to expect a real explanation.

As Steve had thought his mother was sitting on the couch waiting for him, "Steve, what is going on?"

"Claudia is having some troubles at home," Steve replied simply being careful what he said, it wasn't that he didn't trust his mother but he was sure that if she knew the truth her solution would be to call the police. Since they had already promised Claudia that they wouldn't involve the cops yet it seemed best to keep his mother out of it for now.

Of course his mother wasn't stupid and Claudia did have a black eye, "Problems?"

"Please, Mom," Steve said shaking her head, "This is just be until we find a better solution. Can't you please let me handle this for now."

"Fine, Steven," His mother said sighing but she stood up and took his hand, "But please be careful."

"Sure thing mom," Steve said and prepared himself to leave, but his mother didn't let go of his hand. "And Steve, I am here if you need me."

Steve just nodded a bit, not quite meeting his mother's eye and finally he said softly, "Thanks." She smiled softly and let go of his hand.

"I have to go talk to my friends, I'll be back in later on tonight," He promised before heading outside where Pete, Helena and Myka were waiting in the driveway.

When Pete spotted Steve he jumped down off of the hood of the Steve's car and headed over, "So I've been thinking about this and I've got a plan about how we should handle this."

"Really?" Steve asked, it seemed mean to be so skeptical of Pete but he wasn't the one Steve had expected to have the answers. He shot a look at Myka and she shrugged indicating she hadn't any idea what this idea was going to be.

"Yeah, look we'll send in HG first cause she's unassuming and can probably talk her way into the house, then she can do some of her crazy crouching tiger moves and distract the guy while the rest of us gain access to the house. I'll take out that Marcus kid cause even if he didn't do anything this time, he still killed you and that pisses me off. Once HG has sedated the guy, we will tie him to a chair. You and Myka can do a good cop, bad cop thing, Myka we will get you a sword and…"

"Pete, stop," Myka cut in before this idea got completely out of hand.

"Actually I really like this plan," Helena pointed out especially satisfied with her part of the plan, "And I rarely agree with Pete."

"It does seem fair," Steve agree and Myka just shook her head, she hated always having to be the voice of reason but someone had to make them see that this wouldn't do any good.

"Do you really think attacking the guy will help?"

"It would help us feel better," Pete pointed out.

"Maybe but is it going to fix the situation?"

"Of course not. What do you think we should do?" Steve asked moving to sit on the hood of the car, he was exhausted but he knew this night was far from over.

"We need to go to the police," Myka said simply and raised her hand to ward off the flood of objections that they were about to head her way, "After we find a new place for her to go. She doesn't want to be just thrown back into the system, but if we can find a permanent place here in Univille then maybe she wouldn't be so resistant to the idea. Univille may be small but there has got to be at least one other registered foster family."

"Why don't one of us just register," Pete offered getting on board with the idea, "I'm sure I can talk my mom into doing it and she is a pillar of the community there is no way they won't agree to let her be a foster parent."

Although she can't seem to stop her son from throwing out of control parties, Steve thought, but what he said was, "It would take to long for it to all go through. I thought of the same thing but if the guy reports Claudia as missing before then she'll have to go back."

"They must keep records on these things somewhere," Helena said thoughtfully looking around at the others, "If we can find out who is already approved by your government for this, we could talk them into taking custody. Although apparently they don't do a proper job of monitoring these families to see if they are actually capable."

No one could really argue with that.

"They'll have those records at the courthouse," Myka said finally, "But we will have to break in."

"Righty Ho then," Helena said happy to finally have a plan, "Let's go." The others all got up as well and were halfway down the driveway when Pete realized the problem with this. "Guys wait."

When they turned to look at him he pointed back to the house, "We can't all leave. Some of us need to stay here in case Claudia changes her mind about giving us time and takes off again."

Myka nodded a bit, "Helena needs to go because she's the only one of us who can pick a lock."

"And I would prefer to go with someone who adapt at hacking into files because that is not my specialty," Helena added.

"Which would be Claudia," Pete said pointing out the problem.

"I can go," Steve volunteered, "I've been spending a lot of time with her, I'm not great but I have picked up some things."

"Okay," Myka agreed, she wouldn't admit it but she was quite happy not to be breaking into a government building, "We'll wait here and keep an eye out.

Helena and Steve took off and Myka and Pete got comfortable on the hood of the car.

"This night did not go how I had planned," Pete said reaching in his coat pocket and pulling out a flask, "It's time for a pick me up." He took a sip and offered the flask to Myka who waved it off.

"You should really stop drinking," Myka said softly, frowning at him.

"Chill Mykes, its just a few drinks it's not a big deal."

She fell silent for a second before she looked over at Pete, "You know last year I was dating this guy from Featherhead I meet at, don't laugh, a debate competition. He was smart, cute, a senior and we clicked really well."

"Nice going Mykes, I take back the comment about you not being get a date cause you're a nerd," Pete teased and took another drink, "But why are you telling me this now?"

"Sam was pretty sheltered, so when he went off to college he went a little crazy," Myka continued carefully not looking at Pete, "He meet new friends who were really into drinking and partying. One weekend I was driving up there to meet him but I got delayed and he ended up going out on his own." She turned to look at Pete trying to make him understand, "Pete, by the time I got there he had overdosed and his friends were too far gone to even notice. I was late and he died. Your drinking is a big deal to me, I don't want to lose you too."

Pete frowned and handed her his flask, "Your no going to lose me Mykes. I'll stop drinking, promise."

Myka smiled and throw the flask in Steve's trashcan without getting up from the car.

"Nice shoot," Pete said impressed despite the fact that she had just trashed his property. Myka smiled and sat back watching the house for any problems.

* * *

Claudia couldn't sleep. She did try but the anxiety wouldn't let her breathe, let alone sleep. She didn't like uncertainty; she liked problems. Problems she could solve, it was even fun sometimes but this just waiting around was going to drive her crazy. After all she had already solved the problem and sure it wasn't perfect but she could have handled it.

She could still handle it. Whatever the others thought, she wasn't a child and she didn't need to be taken care of. She would take care of this before things got even more out of hand and she lost control of the situation. Again.

She got out of bed and slipped her shoes back on, she always slept fully dressed so that wasn't a problem, and grabbed her bag from the side of the bed before heading downstairs as quietly as she could in order not to wake anyone. She was almost to the door when Steve's mother walked out of the kitchen flipping on the den light as she did so. "Can I help you with something?" She asked smiling softly when she spotted Claudia.

"Um…no," Claudia said trying not to look suspicious, "I just..um…water?" Claudia decided she should work on her ability to lie, then she wondered if it would do any good and if Jinksy's mother had the same talent as her son.

Mrs. Jinks smiled and nodded turning and heading toward the kitchen, "Come on, I'll make you some tea."

Claudia glanced to the door but it seemed unlikely that she was going to be able to make a run for it at the moment so she took off her bag and left it near the door before following Steve's mother into the kitchen. She sat awkwardly at the kitchen table watching Mrs. Jinks prepare two cups before she brought them to the table handing one to Claudia, "Here you go, it's Steve's and my favorite."

"It smells weird," Claudia commented and then wondered if that was rude so she took a sip anyway. It tasted weird too but Claudia kept herself form saying this thought out loud, though she might have made a face.

"It takes a little getting used to," Mrs. Jinks commented smiling softly and taking a sip from her own drink, "I can get you something else if you'd like."

"No it's fine," Claudia said and took another sip, it wasn't so bad the second time and the warmth was comforting. They sat there for a little bit drinking their tea.

"You know it's not easy being a parent," Mrs. Jinks said softly and Claudia stiffened a bit expecting a lecture, "especially when you don't have help. I thought I was doing so well too."

Claudia relaxed a bit then, she didn't know where this was going but it didn't seemed to be about her so she said, "I'm sure you're a good mom."

"I don't know anymore," Mrs. Jinks replied sighing a bit and staring off into space, "We were so happy before Olivia died, but now…Steve was slipping away. Not just from me but from everything and I didn't know what to do. I felt like a horrible parent."

Claudia didn't know what to say, this was awkward enough that she almost wished it had been about her. She just sat there and drank her weird tea trying to act as if she was following what was happening.

"Then he met all of you," She continued and smiled at Claudia, "I know it's odd for a mother to say but detention was the best thing that happen to Steve because he met you."

"I didn't do anything," Claudia assured her, in fact she felt like she hadn't been anything but a burden on the others for the past few weeks.

"You may not realize it but you did," She replied smiling at Claudia, "Ever since he became friends with you he seems happy and for awhile I was afraid he would wouldn't be happy again. I don't know what would have happened if Steven had never met you, so thank you."

Claudia smiled softly and just nodded, "Thanks for the tea, Mrs. Jinksy. I think I'm ready to head to bed now."

Mrs. Jinks nodded and picked up the cups to wash, "Good night, Claudia."

"Night," Claudia said and went to grab her bag from the door before heading back upstairs.

* * *

It turns out that they had over thought the difficulty of stealing files from a Univille government building. In typical Univille fashion the lock on the front door was broken so it hadn't latched properly and no one had bother to lock any of their office doors making Helena's role unnecessary. Not to mention the fact that they kept paper records for everything so Steve didn't even have to touch the computer. Although after going through what felt like his hundredth accordion folder he wished he was testing his hacking skills instead.

"How many more of these are there?" Steve asked looking at Helena who had finished the one she was looking through and had gone to get another one.

"Approximately fifty," Helena said scornfully, "Has your government never hear of alphabetizing or chronological order?"

"The government doesn't send it's best agents to Univille," Steve replied simply and had just given up on the folder when Helena smiled, "Well what do we have here?"

"What is it?" Steve asked coming over and Helena handed it over to Steve, "It's the case file for a young girl name Leena who lived here a few years ago, look at who fostered her."

Steve took the file and as he read it he couldn't help but smile, "Claudia isn't going to be happy about this."

"Possible not but it is a far better option then we had hoped for," Helena pointed out and took the file tucking it into her coat, in this mess it wouldn't be missed, "Let's head back and inform the others of our success."

Steve nodded putting his file back where he thought it had come from, but HG was right, no one was going to notice. For the first time all night he felt like everything was going to be okay as the words on the report kept flashing in his head.

Foster parent name: Arthur Nielsen.


End file.
